This is a divisional of prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/653,988, filed Dec. 21, 2009 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,249,627. Recent studies have shown that driving while texting on a cell phone is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. Older studies have linked higher traffic accident rates to talking on cell phones while driving.
However, some people use their cell phones for business and do not want clients or customers to wonder why they did not call back right away. Other people just want to be able to respond promptly in some fashion without endangering themselves or others so the person calling them or texting them knows what is going on or does not start to worry since the person normally responds right away to a text or phone call.
An article in a Nov. 22, 2009 Dallas newspaper described a subscription system called ZoomSafer™ that renders driving when a cell phone is present safer. The system uses the GPS on the phone to detect when the user is driving and then disables the cell phone until the driver stops the car. This system is believed to shut off the user's phone while the user is driving. The problem with such a system is that the user may wish to know who is calling or texting, and, if the call or text is important enough, pull over, stop the car and answer the text or call.
Other companies such as GM assume that drivers' judgment can be trusted and they have implemented handsfree Onstar™ systems to voice dial numbers that have been previously stored and given a nametag by pushing the Onstar phone button and asking the user to speak the nametag. The system then automatically dials the phone number stored in the car's computer using a cell phone built into the car and minutes purchased from Onstar. GM has also implemented Bluetooth™ systems to dial the phone owned by the user by coupling the user's cell phone to the car's audio system and allowing the user to dial a number from a keypad displayed on the navigation system display of the vehicle or from the cell phone or cell phone address book. The audio of the call is played through the car's audio system and a microphone in the car picks up the driver's voice and couples it to the cell phone for transmission using the Bluetooth system. Ford and Microsoft are selling systems that rely on voice commands to dial phones. The systems that disable the cell phone using the GPS have caught the attention of the insurance companies because studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone is dangerous even if the driver is using a headset and has both hands on the wheel. One insurance company has said it will offer discounts to customers who use a call-blocking service to disable their phones. Other companies such as Aegis Mobility and obdEdge employ systems that place restrictions on phones based upon the phone's GPS signal, data from the car itself or from nearby cell towers. Any incoming calls are routed to voice mail or a message explaining that the phone's user is driving. Exceptions can be made for certain numbers. The exceptions are the only control the user of the cell phone has in these systems to allow a call to come through. This puts too much restriction on the driver to anticipate who might be calling and gives the driver no option to see the caller IDs of all incoming calls and decide whether or not to pull over and take the call or just take the call while driving and take the risk.
Another prior art feature found in some phones is called “Quick Text” and it features a menu from which the user can choose “canned” (already typed and stored in the phone) responses to send in response to a text message received.
There has therefore arisen a need for a simple, fast, safe way for the user of a cell phone who is driving to know who is calling or texting, and, with a single push of a button, send a pre-typed message to a text sender or a pre-recorded voice message to a caller who is calling in while the owner of a cell phone is driving or otherwise engaged if the driver chooses not to take the call or reply to the text while driving and chooses not to pull over and take the call or reply to the text.